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A garden commemorates Sir Edward `Weary` Dunlop who born in Benalla in 1907 and later attended Benalla High School. From March 1942 to the end of the Second World War he was a prisoner-of-war (POW) under Japanese command in Singapore and, from January 1943, in Thailand where he worked on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway.

Unintimidated by the Japanese he became a legend with the Australian prisoners for his modesty and his remarkable efforts in scrounging food for the sick, building makeshift hospitals and operating with hand-made instruments. It is known that, of the 5600 patients he had handled by October 1943, only 56 had died under conditions of extreme deprivation and brutality. Yet he managed to bare no hatred towards the Japanese and became deeply devoted to the peoples of Asia.

After the war he acted as a medical adviser in India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and South Vietnam. Named Australian of the Year in 1977 and a Knight of St John in 1982 he published his best-selling war diaries in 1986. Dunlop died in 1993

Location

Details

Monument Type:

Garden

Monument Theme:

People

Sub-Theme:

Military

Dedication

Front Inscription

SIR EDWARD DUNLOP MEMORIAL LAWN
1907 - 1993

Sir Edward Dunlop was one of the most admired World War II heroes.

Joining the army as a surgeon in 1939, Edward Dunlop was captured by the Japanese in Java and spent three years as a prisoner of war, most of this time along the infamous Thailand - Burma Railway. During this period he worked tirelessly to save lives of hundreds of his fellow POW`s. After the war he championed good relations with Japan saying he bore no malice towards his former captors.